Do you have the confidence to spend money NOW?
Damn, there is so much to talk about in regards to 2022. I could open about the worst investment year in nearly a half century. In another post, I’ll tell you why 2022, a horrendous year, gave me great confidence. I could also talk about how families are saving for college and what to do if you don’t have enough.
Instead, I’d like to share what inspired me to start Lifetime Financial. Nearly a quarter century ago when I was a youthful 28, I married a wonderful woman, Trisha. We had two amazing girls, Emma and Lily who are now 22 and 20 respectively. After an MBA from Johns Hopkins, I embarked on a two-decade nonprofit management career in Finance and Operations. Never as an enthusiastic child did I say, “I want to be a nonprofit CFO!’, but it was a stable career and I felt challenged and valued.
That stability turned out to be very helpful as Trisha developed breast cancer when our kids were young, eventually succumbing to it 8 years later in 2012 when the girls were 9 and 12 years old. I don’t think I can have a worse day than the one where I told my girls that their mom would soon die. (Huffington Post published my writing on it.)
The 10th anniversary of Trish’s death was in 2022, and it was difficult for us. I wrote about it here as a last letter ‘to’ her and as a record for my girls.
During her battle with cancer, we made a goal to travel for 365 days abroad, pieced together with many 10–30-day trips. Trisha died before we could complete it, but the girls and I continued and finished on New Year’s Eve 2019 in Berlin, Germany. Together we’ve traveled to 40 countries. The New York Times and Holiday Inn paid for a short documentary on our experience.
I have no idea how much all that travel cost. It certainly wasn’t luxury travel, and I spent a lot of time getting credit card bonuses for cheap airline miles to defray costs. It had to be $20k a year for many years. I saved very little in those years despite having a good nonprofit executive salary. I even floated a $35k trip to Africa on credit cards. (HORROR!!!)
Would you have that kind of confidence? Most people wouldn’t and I don't blame them. I was scared myself at times. I’m grateful that I had the analytic tools to feel safe enough to spend money in the present. My plans weren’t perfect, but I have been able to adjust and adapt enough to stay on trajectory.
From that experience was born my commitment to financial life planning – the delicate but critical practice of balancing the need for a safe, comfortable retirement with the need to lead fulfilling lives NOW. It’s tough to do! Pursuing ‘enough’ is more difficult than pursing ‘more’.
We are all grateful for family and friends. We are grateful for the privilege and luck we might have. We are grateful to experience the miracle of conscious life on an isolated rock unfathomably far away from anything else.
To that gratitude, let’s add a commitment to using our wealth to live more fully now. Worry less about a future you can’t predict and focus on what makes you happy and closer to the people that love you.
